LLEI D'ART 10

about the cover Franco Salas Borquez The Possession of the Sea Born on the Chilean island of Chiloé in 1979, but currently residing in Paris, this young, willowy and circumspect artist works with new forms of lyric realism whose motif is always the sea, seen from an untamed, unusual perspective. Usually this is a sea without shore, allegoric of constant birth and rebirth, of transformation, purification, underneath whose surface lies the undefined, the enigmatic, and the unplumbable. Fragments of sky sporadically burst through on a few occasions like stolen, awkward kisses. Unconditionally adhered to the skin of his soul, a remote hidey-hole of his passions, the sea, which the artist declared himself ardently in love with, is honoured and venerated by his noble and devoted brushstrokes. His entire oeuvre tells of the same passion with different variations, however you look at it; a vehement outburst of idolatry where only the waves fluctuate, never the artist’s intention and much less his desires. He himself contemplates his creations and still seems to be waiting for a reply to his restlessness. It is a part of that intrigue, of each story. Unplumbable depths that strike fear into mortals and deities, where the fragility of the human being becomes clear in its vices and virtues. A perfect image of the inscrutable and the unintelligible, the cosmic ocean that threatens land, a mythological representation of the almighty struggle between chaos and order. A lover of epic imagery, a poets’ muse, a roaring and untamable thousand-faced dragon that unleashes its fury against and for itself, affecting the winds and facing down anything that dare challenge it. The eloquence of his sublime canvasses, especially in large formats, evokes a deep silence, and surprises the viewer by opening up sublime experiences. They represent the very experience of life, its instability and unpredictability, as well as the depth of the human heart in its multiple expressions and facets. The hostile medium par excellence , a symbol of regeneration and constant movement, it is the relief of the disconsolate, comforting the disenchanted soul with its serene beauty and overwhelming charm, whether by day or night, with its wild or calm waters both clear and foaming. It is the mirror of the sky it dialogues with, and it seems that both melt into each other where you can see no further and the stars rest their shining glow. The shout of silence The work of art that our front page bears is impossibly grandiloquent and disturbing. Rarely has such a limited palette been so capable of such variety: a synthesis of the essential, the extract of a moment, a place, and an outburst, so deliciously painted in one take that screams out from the silence of its fired-up exuberance. Only someone who carries the sea woven into their very self, like this artist, can fuse colour, fluids, foam and verses in a single scene that bewilders reason, captivates the soul, and leaves a tender aftertaste of sea salt and yearning on the lips. 96